If You're Thinking of Living In/Little Silver, N.J.; Riverfront Borough That Prizes Stability

LITTLE SILVER, on the Shrewsbury River in Monmouth County, is in the throes of a home renovation and expansion boom. Throughout the 2.8-square-mile borough, roofs are being ripped off ranch houses and small Cape Cods, as they are converted into sprawling two-story colonials. Many homes -- sometimes several on one block -- are being torn down to make way for larger ones.

''Last year, we issued 581 building permits and during the first seven months of this year we issued another 403,'' Mayor Suzanne S. Castleman said. ''Since we have virtually no buildable land left, these are mostly improvements to existing homes.''

A lifelong resident of the borough, Mrs. Castleman, who is in her 60's, says the renovations reflect stability. ''People who move here, stay here,'' she explained.

Many businesses in town -- including Gift Winds, the E. A. Armstrong Agency Realtors and the Sickles Farm Market -- have been in the same families for generations. The borough's oldest house, constructed in the 1660's by Peter Parker, one of the first settlers, remained in his family until 1995, when his descendant Julia Parker died at age 96 and left it to the borough. The Parker Homestead, which also includes 10 acres and 3 barns, is being renovated through $670,000 in grants and gifts to serve as a museum and historic site.

Some residents say the borough's main attractions are the Shrewsbury River, its highly rated public school system and its proximity to the culture-rich borough of Red Bank and the Jersey Shore, less than five miles away. However, Lonnie Keating, who moved in from Maplewood in northern New Jersey in December, together with her husband, Bob, and their 23-year-old daughter, Christina, says they were drawn by Little Silver's friendliness and its pace.

Ms. Keating, who sells health insurance to municipalities and school districts in Monmouth County, says she became acquainted with Little Silver through her work. ''I saw that the farther you get from New York City, the more time people seem to have to relate to each other,'' she explained. ''Everyone here says 'Hello' to you on the street, which helps you to bond with people and form relationships quickly.''

In moving from a large house to their luxurious town house condominium in the Alderbrook Townhome Estates, the Keatings were downsizing after their two oldest children left the nest. While the move allowed the family to extend their circle of friends and take advantage of the nearby beaches, it also added an hour to Bob's and Christina's commutes to jobs in Manhattan by New Jersey Transit trains.

''Bob finds the ride more relaxing because he is always able to get a seat on the train,'' Ms. Keating said. ''There are not that many stops before Little Silver, whereas the train was always full when he got on in Maplewood. Christina, on the other hand, finds the commute too long and wants to rent an apartment in Hoboken, closer to the city.''

ACCORDING to Mayor Castleman, 8 percent of Little Silver's homes are on the Shrewsbury River and another 35 percent are along its stream corridors. From Seven Bridges Road, which spans the river and its tributaries in seven places, private docks are visible behind waterfront houses. For residents without private access to the river, the borough provides a boat ramp, at no cost, in Dominick F. Santelle Park off Riverview Avenue.

Housing prices in Little Silver have risen 13 percent in the past year, according to George Coffenberg, a broker for Prudential Coffenberg Realty in neighboring Rumson. At the end of August, 14 houses were listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service. They ranged from $250,000 for a four-bedroom, two-bath Cape Cod on busy Branch Avenue to $3.5 million for an eight-bedroom, eight-and-a-half-bath custom stucco home on Pine Drive, just off Seven Bridges Road.

Among the most desirable streets is Little Silver Point Road, which juts into the river and is bordered on both sides by water. ''Waterfront property along Little Silver Point Road goes quickly -- for over $1 million,'' said Joanne Gillespie, a saleswoman at E. A. Armstrong Agency Realtors. ''For example, a house that was listed for $1,195,000 on May 26, was sold by June 8.''

Mrs. Gillespie also noted that a four-bedroom colonial on Rustic Terrace, which is desirable but not on the water, was listed last month at $675,000 and was under contract the next day for more than its asking price. Another four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath colonial with a swimming pool on the same street recently fetched $729,900.

Among the more moderately priced homes are postwar ranches, Capes and smaller colonials, selling for $260,000 to $369,000 in the Sunnycrest Drive area, within walking distance of the town center and the railroad station off Sycamore Avenue on the borough's southern border. That station, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was built of sandstone in 1875 by the New York and Long Branch Railroad. Now part of the New Jersey Transit system, the station is being restored.

There are four condominium complexes, one of which is the 44-unit Cheshire Square, off Church Street, where occupancy is restricted to households with at least one resident 55 or older. Since no units there have been on the market recently, neither Mrs. Gillespie nor Mr. Coffenberg could accurately assess their value.

The other three complexes are the 24-unit Sycamore Estates off Sycamore Avenue, the 123-unit Townhomes at Little Silver off Oceanport Avenue behind the train station and the 167-unit Alderbrook Townhome Estates off Harding Road. Recent sales in Sycamore Estates include a two-bedroom town house that went for $340,000 and a three-bedroom town house that fetched $390,000; and in Townhomes at Little Silver, sales ranged from $260,000 for a two-bedroom unit up to $359,000 for a three-bedroom with a loft. Prices in Alderbrook, where all units have basements, two-car garages and sumptuously appointed kitchens, along with access to the communal tennis courts and swimming pool, are $500,000 to $700,000, according to Mrs. Gillespie, who lives in the complex.

There are no apartment buildings in the borough, and private homes for rent are hard to find.

The 873-student Little Silver Public Schools system consists of the Point Road School for Grades K to 4 and the Markham Place School for Grades 5 to 8. Last year, the borough's student mobility rate -- a state Department of Education measure of the number of students who transfer into or out of a district annually -- hovered around 2 percent, compared with a statewide average of 14.3 percent.

According to the superintendent, Dr. Marjorie S. Heller, Little Silver consistently scores in the top 5 percent of school districts on statewide achievement tests given to eighth graders. Computers are introduced in kindergarten and each classroom in the district has an average of five. The schools emphasize the arts, with mandatory violin instruction in third grade and extensive offerings in the visual arts.

The district also enjoys strong support from its parent teacher organization and the Educational Foundation of Little Silver, which together raise tens of thousands of dollars annually to sponsor special programs and technology. Last year, they financed a Holocaust program, computer hardware and teachers grants for the development of innovative programs.

AMONG the issues facing the school system are overcrowding and a lack of diversity. Some Little Silver classes have as many as 28 pupils, compared with a state average of 22. In December, Dr. Heller said, voters will be presented with a referendum for the expansion of both schools.

Like the borough as a whole, the student body is more than 95 percent white. ''We have to teach our students diversity through celebration of our ancestry,'' Dr. Heller said. ''Once, when we had two brothers from Germany in the system, we celebrated diversity by teaching German cooking.''

For high school, the students move up to 1,170-student Red Bank Regional High Schoolon Harding Road in Little Silver, where minority students make up 19 percent of the population. The high school also serves neighboring Red Bank and Shrewsbury and accepts 300 students from 16 other municipalities, which pay $8,600 tuition per student for access to its rich offerings in the arts.

''Our tuition-paying students are accepted on the basis of auditions or portfolios, depending on whether they are interested in the performing or visual arts,'' said the principal, C. Arthur Alebrizio. ''We offer seven different art-oriented programs along with other specialized programs in finance, computer programming and information technology. Where other schools might offer a half hour elective in dance, our arts programs can meet for 10 to 15 hours a week, and most of our arts teachers have had experience in their fields.''

Red Bank Regional offers 15 advanced placement courses in the sciences, English, foreign languages, mathematics, art, music and history. On last year's College Board tests, students had a combined average verbal and mathematics score of 1036, compared with a state average of 1012. About 81 percent of the school's graduates are going on to college.

Reflecting Little Silver's affluence, the borough has a row of good restaurants on Markham Place in the town center. The town center also includes a supermarket, a gift shop, banks, a dry cleaner and a typical small-town hardware store. For their major shopping, most residents go to the Grove, an open-air mall in neighboring Shrewsbury.

Many residents belong to beach clubs in nearby Sea Bright or Monmouth Beach, and there are few public parks in the borough. The largest is the 12-acre Parker Sickles Farm Park off Harrison Street, across from the Parker Homestead. It includes a soccer field, a baseball diamond and playground equipment.